Has anyone here seen Nick Hornby? For me, this book was a disappointment - this, to me, was not the author of High Fidelity, among other works ( )

I picked this up thinking "oh, I haven't read a Nick Hornby book in like ten years, I'm gonna see if I love him as much as I did when I was fifteen", but then I looked him up and it turns out I HAVE read all his novels (I just completely forgot about Juliet, naked). So I guess he's actually one of my fave writers, I just forget about him a lot (he also wrote Wild??? I really liked that movie).

And yes, I loved this book. I don't know why, because if you asked me to describe the plot I couldn't get it to sound exciting, but I really really enjoyed reading it, it was never boring and it was full of characters that I liked. They weren't always likeable, but I still liked them, if you see what I'm saying.

I think the fact that I instantly liked Sophie/Barbara was the key. Normally, reading about a girl who is so set on going to the big city and making it big and then immediately realizing that dream would bug me, but not this time. From like page one I was on her side and rooting for her, so if she got extremely lucky, I was just happy for her. And I kept being happy for her.

I just really loved it, and I didn't expect to, so that was awesome. ( )

It started off ok but as it progressed i found myself not caring at all about anyone. It just trudged along at a snails pace. This is an utterly forgettable read for me. ( )

The turning point in Barbara's life comes when she wins a beauty contest — then turns it down. She realizes that being Miss Blackpool means having to stay in Blackpool carrying out her responsibilities for the next year. Inspired by “I Love Lucy” — this is 1950s England — and determined to become the next Lucille Ball, she leaves her father behind and heads for London. In short order she does become England's Lucille Ball and the star of a hit television comedy. She also gets a new name — Sophie Straw.

This is the beginning, and in fact the best part, of Nick Hornby's 2014 novel “Funny Girl.” Show business novels tend to bore me, and this one is no exception. The novel covers Sophie's life, right up to her old age, yet it never again rises to the level of those opening chapters.

The hit show is Barbara (and Jim), and the lead character played by Sophie happens to be a beautiful young woman from Blackpool named Barbara. Although someone with no acting experience whatsoever, Sophie stars, while Jim is played by a famous actor named Clive, disgruntled at being trapped forever in parenthesis.

Hornby traces the evolving relationship of Sophie and Clive, as well as the show's producer, Dennis, and its writers, Tony and Bill. The story, such as it is, never really develops into anything compelling.

The author's worst mistake may be that he never convinces us that Sophie really is a "funny girl." He tells us that she is the equal of Lucille Ball, but he never actually shows us. The closest he comes is in an early scene, my favorite passage in the novel, when Sophie comes to audition for a bit part in a planned, still unnamed television show and wows the writers with her witty and insightful comments. That's how she lands the lead role. After that, she's just not very funny at all, nor is the story. For that matter, neither is Lucille Ball when she makes a brief appearance. ( )

sciarium has the measured-vocabulary version?